1

Natural Philosophy, and other parts of Humane Learning; And particularly of what hath been called the New Philosophy or Experimental Philosophy.

We did by agreement, divers of us, meet weekly in London on a certain day, to treat and discourse of such affairs. Of which number were Dr. John Wilkins (afterward Bp. of Chester) Dr. Jonathan Goddard, Dr. George Ent, Dr. Glisson, Dr. Merret, (Drs. in Physick,) Mr. Samuel Foster then Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, Mr. Theodore Hank (a German of the Palatinate, and then Resident in London, who, I think, gave the first occasion, and first suggested those meetings) and many others.

These meetings we held sometimes at Dr. Goddard's lodgings in Woodstreet (or some convenient place near) on occasion of his keeping an Operator in his house, for grinding Glasses for Telescopes and Microscopes; and sometime at a convenient place in Cheap-side; sometime at Gresham College or some place near adjoyning,

Our business was (precluding matters of Theology and State Affairs) to discourse and consider of Philosophical Enquiries, and such as related thereunto; as Physick, Anatomy, Geo metry, Astronomy, Navigation, Staticks, Magne ticks, Chymicks, Mechanicks, and Natural Experiments with the state of these Studies, as then

cul

cultivated, at home and abroad.

We there

discoursed of the Circulation of the Bloud, the Valves in the Veins, the Vene Lacteæ, the Lymphatick Vessels, the Copernican Hypothesis, the Nature of Comets, and New stars, the Satellites of Jupiter, the Oval Shape (as it then appeared) of Saturn, the spots in the Sun, and it's Turning on it's own Axis, the Inequalities and Selenography of the Moon, the several Phases of Venus and Mercury, the Improvement of Telescopes, and grinding of Glasses for that purpose, the Weight of Air, the Possibility or Impossibility of Vacuities, and Nature's Abhorrence thereof, the Torricellian Experiment in Quicksilver, the Descent of heavy Bodies, and the degrees of Acceleration therein; and divers other things of like nature, Some of which were then but New Discoveries, and others not so generally known and imbraced, as now they are, with other things appertaining to what hath been called The New Philosophy; which, from the times of Galileo at Florence, and Sr. Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam) in England, hath been much cultivated in Italy, France, Germany, and other Parts abroad, as well as with us in England.

About the year 1648,1649, some of our company being removed to Oxford (first Dr. Wilkins, then I, and soon after Dr. Goddard) our company divided. Those in London continued to meet there as before (and we with them, when Vol. I.

m

we

we had occasion to be there;) and those of us at Oxford; with Dr. Ward (since Bp. of Salisbury) Dr. Ralph Bathurst (now President of Trinity College in Oxford) Dr, Fetty (since Sr. William Petty) Dr. Willis (then an eminent Physician in Oxford) and divers others, continued such meetings in Oxford; and brought those Studies into fashion there; meeting first at Dr.Pettie's Lodgings, (in an Apothecarie's house) because of the convenience of inspecting Drugs, and the like, as there was occasion; And after his remove to Ireland (tho' not so constantly) at the Lodgings of Dr. Wilkins, then Warden of Wadham Coll. And after his removal to Trinity College in Cambridge, at the Lodgings of the Honorable Mr. Robert Boyle, then resident for divers years in Oxford.

Those meetings in London continued, and (after the King's Return in 1660) were increased with the accession of divers worthy and Honorable Persons; and were afterwards incorporated by the name of the Royal Society, &c. and so continue to this day.

་

In the

year 1649 I removed to Oxford, being then Publick Professor of Geometry, of the Foundation of Sr. Henry Savile. And Mathematicks which had before been a pleasing Diversion, was now to be my serious Study. And (herein as in other Studies) I made it my business to

exa

examine things to the bottom; and reduce effects to their first principles and original causes. Thereby the better to understand the true ground of what hath been delivered to us from the Antients, and to make further improvements of it. What proficiency I made therein, I leave to the Judgement of those who have thought it worth their while to peruse what I have published therein from time to time; and the favorable opinion of those skilled therein, at home and abroad.

In the year 1653 I was persuaded to publish a Grammar of the English Tongue; chiefly to gratify strangers, who were willing to learn it (because of many desirable things published in our Language) but complained of it's difficulty for want of a Grammar, suited to the propriety' and true Genius of the Language.

To this I prefixed a Treatise of Speech (de ·loquela) wherein I have Philosophically consi dered the Formation of all Sounds used in Articulate Speech, (as well of our own, as of any other Language that I know;) By what Organs, and in what Position each sound was formed; with the nice distinctions of each, (which in some letters of the same Organ, is very subtil:) so that, by such Organs, in such Position, the Breath issuing from the Lungs, will form such Sounds, whether the Person do

or do not hear himself speak. Which was, I think, a new attempt, not before undertaken by any (that I know of) before that time. For tho' it were observed, that some letters were Labials, some Dentals, some Palatines, and some Gutturals; and some Grammarians have in some few shewed a different Formation' in some few"! of the same Organ; yet it is but of very few they have so done; and very imperfectly; None: (that I know of) had before attempted it, as to all; whatever may have been done since in pursuance of what I had then taught.

In pursuance of this, I thought it very possible to teach a Deaf person to speak, by directing him, so to apply the Organs of Speech, as the sound of each letter required, (which children learn by imitation and manifold attempts, rather than by art:) And in the year 1660 being importuned by some friends of his, I undertook so to teach Mr. Daniel Whalley of Northampton, who had been Deaf and Dumb from a Child. I began the work in 1661, and in little more than a year's time, I had taught him to pronounce distinctly any words, so as I directed him, (even the most difficult of the Polish Language, which a Polish Lord then in Oxford could propose to him, by way of trial, of those five or six select hard words, which

'F. delend.

they